The below excerpt is from my book Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups. This revised and expanded edition shows church leaders how to make their small groups work.

Your group leaders should be apprentices, not experts. This mindset gives you the freedom to raise up new leaders in the same way that Jesus and Paul both did. When Jesus asked Peter and Andrew to follow him, he didn’t preface the invitation with any heavy-handed requirements or a spiritual litmus test. And remember how Paul would leave his churches under the leadership of relatively new believers? If Jesus could trust a couple of fisherman to be his disciples and Paul could trust inexperienced believers to oversee the ministry of new churches, surely we can trust our followers of Jesus with our small groups—even though they are just average, ordinary men and women.

Don’t set the bar so high for being a group leader that it excludes good potential leaders. Instead, use group leadership as an opportunity to challenge those who have been hiding in their comfort zones to take a step up on the leadership ladder. After years of analyzing who makes a good group leader and who doesn’t, here is my recommended list of requirements:

• Follows Jesus
• Attends The Journey faithfully
• Has been in a group before, preferably as a coordinator
• Has been recommended by a group leader, member, or staff person
• Has taken the step of membership at The Journey (though not ideal, we will allow a person to lead their first group without becoming a member, but membership must be official before leading a second time)

– Nelson Searcy and Kerrick Thomas, with Jennifer Dykes Henson

The above excerpt is from p.174-175 of Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups.

Drawing from the startling success of small groups at The Journey Church, Nelson Searcy and Kerrick Thomas debunk the myths, set the record straight, and show how church leaders can implement a healthy small group ministry that gets the maximum number of people involved and solves many of the important problems facing churches of all sizes. These practical strategies will produce life-changing results.

P.S. – Click here to grab your copy from Amazon today!

Your partner in ministry,

Nelson

© Nelson Searcy. All Rights Reserved.

About Nelson Searcy

Nelson Searcy is an experienced church growth strategist, pastor, church planter and coach, consulting with churches around the world. As founder of Church Leader Insights and the Renegade Pastors Network, he has personally trained more than 3,500 church leaders in over 45 denominations through live events, seminars and monthly coaching. Nelson is also the Founding and Lead Pastor of The Journey Church, with locations across New York City and in Boca Raton, FL. Nelson and his church routinely appear on lists such as “The 50 Most Influential Churches” and “The 25 Most Innovative Leaders.” He is the author of over 100 church growth resources and 18+ books, including The Renegade Pastor: Abandoning Average in Your Life, Ministry and The Difference Maker: Using Your Everyday Life for Eternal Impact, and At the Cross with the People Who Were There. He and his wife, Kelley, have one son, Alexander.